The invention relates to a circumferential seal system for a rotary combustor and more particularly to a circumferential seal system disposed between zone wind box plenums of a rotary combustor to provide the optimum sealing for the zone being sealed.
In rotary combustors in which municipal solid waste is burned to generate heat, the waste is burned in a barrel shaped combustor having a plurality of wind box plenums for supplying combustion air to burn the waste. There are usually three or four wind box plenums which supply combustion air to three or four axially disposed zones in the combustor. Proper combustion requires that the air flow in each zone be separately controlled, thus requiring that reliable circumferential seals be installed between the zones. U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,031 shows the seal originally utilized in such apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,588 shows such a seal with a plurality of fingers made up of a seal strip having a plurality of layer of material one of which is a heat insulating material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,786 shows a seal strip forming a running seal on a cylindrical surface.